Tag Archives: comical

Last night I was happily enjoying my crockpot chicken over lettuce, while my boyfriend was eating it over rice. I asked for a bite, because he had it over my favorite brown rice from Trader Joe’s, the one with lots of texture called “Brown Rice Medley”. And of course once I had dodged the cheese he had added, I got a nice ricey, chickeny nummy bite! I loved it. Then he asked “what are the little round kinda crunchy things.” I wasn’t sure so I grabbed the package and much to my surprise it was barley.

Trader Joe’s ‘ Brown Rice Medley”

Ah barley, the much debated “can you eat it if you’re gluten free” question. I have read many sites and what I’ve decided to believe is that, if you are a Celiac, it’s not a good idea. If you have gluten allergies (meaning you can have trace amounts without issue) then it’s usually all good. I’m allergic and have never had issues with barley.

The reason I have found that it does cause issues for Celiacs, is the same reason some doctors advise Celiacs not to travel to countries like Tibet (an allergy to a country because they grow so much wheat! I had never heard this before.) The reason to avoid barley if you are sensitive to cross contamination is because barley and wheat are grown in the same fields and often processed in the same plants. So the barley would most likely have trace amounts that could cause big upsets in a Celiacs system.

So that is my research for the day. I eat barley with no issue, but it’s one to be careful of and consider if you have a Celiac, or a super sensitive system to wheat.

It’s a bit chilly and gray here this fine Seattle morning. If I weren’t looking directly at a calendar for work already I would have guessed it may be March or April, but no, it’s not. It’s June… the snowing in the passes kind of June.

I sure hope the weather gets better this summer, but to lighten up my mood I thought since it’ll be a busy work afternoon I’d get something going on the Crockpot. I dug around and combined some recipes from Gina and Skinnytaste, Allrecipes and the Food Network to come up with this nice Gluten and Diary free hopefully yummy dish. Yes yes, it is a bit risky putting this up but the recipes I combined all had good comments so I’m confident. I’ll post a picture later today… It smells wonderful!

I added some salsa and put it over chopped lettuce. SO GOOD!

Spicy Crockpot Chicken

Main Ingredients:

1- 15 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies

1.5 C black, navy, pinto or kidney beans (drained)

1 C corn (frozen or canned- drained)

1 can chicken broth (Fat Free)

1/2 tsp Tapateo (or hot sauce of your choice)

1/2 tsp Chipolte Chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)

1.5 LBS chicken breast

Seasoning salt to taste (I love Lowreys but any will do)

Optional:

Cheese (for the dairy eaters or dairy free cheese of your choice)

Green onions chopped

Chopped Cilantro

Serve Over:

Chopped Iceburg lettuce

Rice (brown or white)

Pasta (Gluteny or GF?)

Mix all the ingredients except the chicken, Tapateo and the salt in the crockpot. Season the chicken with the Seasoning Salt and Tapateo and place it in the crockpot. Set on low for about 8-10 hours or High for 5-6. If you like shredded chicken, pull it out and shred it about 1/2 hour before the end of your crockpot cooking or you can serve a full chicken breast over the lettuce, rice or pasta no problem. Then top it with your favorite or all of the Cilantro, green onions and cheese. Viola – dinner is served!

I was happily chomping on a box of orange tic tacs at work today when one of my colleagues stops by and says “hey, those have gluten in them ya know!” I looked up shocked. ” They can’t can they?” I asked. He just nodded and walked away. Ah pooey, Mr. Grimgluten reaper! But now I can’t get the idea out of my head, so I’m looking it up and it seems they have CORN gluten not WHEAT gluten.

Image from pennypinchinmom.com

I guess it’s to be a day of learning because I didn’t realize gluten wasn’t specific to Wheat products exclusively… but now I wonder when my Doc said “no gluten” if she knew this an meant no on corn or wheat. After reading a bit, it seems that Corn Gluten is a misused term so she probably didn’t mean avoid it.. So weird.

What a treat for an afternoon. Just imagine sitting back in a fun modern setting as your bowl filled with rice, Korean marinated short ribs and other treats is set in front of you…all topped with an egg yolk.

I had met a good friend for lunch and she suggested a restaurant that has been in Fremont for about a year named Revel. When she mentioned it was Korean I knew I was in business. I am able to have a little bit of gluten like the amount in soy, so I often lean toward Asian food when I’m in doubt. But this, this amazing wonder was such a huge treat. I hadn’t had anything quite like it, with a raw egg yolk ready to stir in and make the dish creamier (they easily remove this if it makes you nervous) Boy was it good. (and I guessed about 10 points eating only 1/2 Cup of the rice.. not bad!)

Who doesn’t love a night filled with friends, birthdays, good food and a good game of spades? I know I love it! Our friends came over the other night and since we cooked last time, they brought food fit for a king, they were making bison spaghetti (of the quinoa variety) YUM!

Now you might flinch if you haven’t had this tasty meat. I’m a big squeamish about different meats much of the time but this one was fantastic. It’s a nice lean red meat that blended into the sauce with such great flavor! Then to top it off some dairy free cheese. It was super yummers! Give it a try, I think you’ll love it!

My friend that brought this over did it to fit into my dietary restrictions and told me it was lower in fat. If you have any to share please share it! I want to learn more. I have started researching and found great info but it’s mostly from a pro-Bison site.

Have you ever had that tough morning where nothing goes your way? It’s a slew of little things so you feel like you have no real right to be upset but you are super ticked off? Yeah this morning was that morning for me. The dog wouldn’t come in, in fact she ran all over the yard to avoid me, which made me leave for work late. Then the dry cleaners couldn’t find the slacks my boyfriend needs for a wedding we’re going to tonight, The ATM had issues with the check I was trying to deposit, Traffic was worse than usual, etc… You know that day. Not a good start.

Then I got to work about a half hour late and what happens? Of course, it’s Friday, the day filled with those horribly tempting boxes of donuts and other baked goods. They’re like a Trojan horse for me… they look all sweet and innocent than BANG they wreak havoc on my belly!

I saw them sitting there, my jelly filled love right in the center of the box and I thought “Well heck, why not? It’s not like my day can get much more annoying.” I reached for it and stopped. I realized that it would make my already rough start for a day even rougher. So guess what I did… I walked away and grabbed a bag of sweet dried apple chips. Sweet, tasty and friendly to the belly. I’d say this was a win of a donut battle, at least for me! I’ll bet someone else here eats those belly achin’, 8 Weight Watcher points right up!

Wine tasting, one of my very favorite things to do! I was lucky enough to host a wine tasting at my home for Silver Bell Winery, a new winery in the great Northwest!

Diane and Alan from Silver Bell came to our home, set up a nice display and gave us history on the grapes and good sized pours of each of their six wines! My only job, to make sure that there was food for all the wine tasters. Now as you probably know the traditional foods for wine tasting are completely unapproved by my gut, so I had to make some alterations. I had the cheese and crackers of course, plus my guests brought some other yummy salads (Thanks for my friend Heather the Salad Queen, it was tasty and safe for me!) and cheese puffs. But to fit into my diet I also had the below items:

Rice Crackers
Tofu cream cheese with a Pepper Jam over the top
Chicken Taquitos wrapped in corn tortillas
Veggie Platter with a home made vinaigrette
Grapes
Popcorn

All in all it was good. I did have a few slices of cheese because it was just too overwhelming to have all those cheesy options…but I only had a few sinces I had other treats I could eat! Great wine and Great food…. Success! Plus I did some of my Christmas Shopping from my own home!